We Remember Everything

by Thunderscourge

You Are Here, No Escape

Loki and Laufey found themselves following behind Trixie for countless hours with nary a word passed between the three of them except to take note of a new direction the group needed to go. Trixie was using her magic to track the spark, which mixed with her teleportation allowed her to keep right on its tail while Loki and Laufey lumbered behind.

All throughout this though Loki could not help but notice the determined, yet smug, expression on the equine’s face. She certainly seemed much more confident than the nervous wreck he had first encountered while he was locked away in his room.

After seeing her like this long enough, Loki cut the chain of silence and interrupted Trixie’s tireless search.

“You are not acting like yourself.”

Trixie kept searching across the wasteland ahead of him as she returned flippantly.

“You try being trapped in your own mind for who knows, weeks? Months? It is quite irritating! Almost as much as this grim wasteland you have had me stuck in all this time.”

The mare stopped momentarily to poke at the ground absentmindedly, her voice dropping down enough to almost not be heard by Loki.

“I’m just happy to be awake.”

That made sense to Loki...he would be just as energetic if he was given the chance to live again after being comatose for so long. He knew too little about his lover’s protege to really know what was and was not characteristic of her, but he had to admit that he could understand where she was coming from.

Similarly, he had his father pegged. Laufey would do whatever was coldly pragmatic in a situation, though his pride could blind him in some ways...like being double crossed by someone known for double crossing.

With his father in mind, Loki turned back to Laufey with curiosity. He had so much he wanted to ask him, having let go of his hatred of all Frost Giants to some degree. Enough to actually care to ask Laufey about his mother—

Looking back to Laufey revealed to the prince that his father was not even facing the same direction. He was turned around and not moving like all of the others.

Laufey was as itching as Loki to leave this place, so the fact that he was not just marching along stood out to his son, “What has your attention headed the wrong way?”

Laufey snorted before turning back the right way.

“There are two beings following us.”

Loki frowned as he thought about what that could possibly mean. Illidan had disappeared entirely without a trace much like Laufey had appeared, and not even Trixie had picked up a trace of the giant elf’s energy.

Whatever happened to him, he was either far away or out of commission. With no reliable way of tracking him, Loki had begrudgingly went along with the other two. Ikol was squawking on his shoulder about how he did the right thing, but Loki had just been ignoring him. It felt like a betrayal of the Betrayer...

Even if Illidan was one of the ones following them, that still left one other. Was it another of the crazed lost souls searching for the spark? Was it someone hunting them? Loki had no particular inclination to find out by meeting it, so he instead inquired more, “And you know this how?”

“I can hear them. They are coming from the same direction, but one is closer. Neither is particularly large, with each being about your size, Runt.”

That confirmed Loki’s apprehension considering them, “Well then, let us finish this quest before they catch up on the chance they are hostile.”

Laufey smiled for what felt like the first time to himself, “Scared?”

Loki would not let him have the last word before things trailed off into silence once again, “Just smart enough to not fight extraneous battles.”

Laufey left it at that. He could see the small shiver down Loki’s spine.

The mists grew less and less thick during the travel, and with the glow from Trixie’s horn there was truly no issue amongst the three tracking down the sparkling creature. Ahead of the other two, Trixie caught sight of it flittering into the only structure for what had to be kilometers.

Given the seemingly closed nature of the abandoned building, “There it is! It’s trapped itself!”

“Yes, we can tell,” Laufey grunted, nowhere as close to happy as Trixie was. A quick look between Loki and their other companion made Trixie realize something she had not during their lengthy trip.

Still in a more chipper mood, Trixie snickered as the three all rushed towards the building, “Oh, this must be your father, father.”

Loki snorted as he did his best to keep up with her four legged charge, “You are Luna’s, not my own.”

“Close enough.”

That brought another smile to Laufey’s lips, the Frost Giant looking over to his half breed son as they finally reached the open doored building. The structure seemed like an industrial building that one might find on Midgard or in certain areas of Equestria. No windows were noticeable, and from their head on perspective the trio could not notice any other exits.

Laufey briefly stopped to use his magic to form a thick coating of ice over the exit, sealing any from leaving and arriving both. As he did this he could not help but voice the reason for his amusement, “Laying with equines, are we?”

He despised his son, and to hear him stooping to such levels validated that hatred.

Loki regretted being unable to overpower Laufey in this constant flux of power and weakness he was stuck in, and was forced to suffer the indignity while weakly defending himself verbally, “A sentient, intelligent, shapeshifting horse. A very long story I must say, probably enough to fill a series tomes of about ten chapters each.”

Trixie was not about to listen about her princess’s private activities, so she quickly tuned them out, “La la la, I cannot hear you.”

Her words quickly removed Laufey’s smug expression, “I need his aid to leave this place. I do not particularly seek yours, horse, so keep your chatter to a minimum lest I decide that you are better off as sustenance.”

Now inside, the group was met with a series of hallways and corridors. No lights or windows made for a very dark environment, but Laufey and Loki each had experience with traveling in the dark. Trixie’s glowing horn helped alleviate the issue anyways, and Loki always could help contribute if he felt he had the power needed to do so.

Trixie turned around to face Laufey, her face neutral as she lowered her front half to bow. Her voice, however, was anything but neutral as she sarcastically quipped, “Why I would never want to irritate a king such as yourself, though I beg your ear for a moment longer, as I am quite curious as to what Jotunheim is like. I have heard so much about it these past few days, but the word of its king trumps all.”

Laufey could hear her sarcasm, but he replied as if she was actually sincere, “It is colder than a being like you could survive. You need not know anything else.”

Trixie pretended to be taken aback at this, “Is that so? I’m not quite so sure. After all, the Great and Powerful Trixie survived far worse than the cold. Have you ever vanquished an Ursa Major and Minor simultaneously?”

Her statement only annoyed Laufey, who did not take it at its face value, “One cannot destroy a constellation. Not without the Infinity Gauntlet, that is.”

Trixie could see where the disconnect was and quickly went about correcting his lapse in knowledge, “Not the constellation, the animal! Don’t tell me you have never heard of an Ursa Major?”

Laufey found himself taking the bait to show off her ego, genuinely curious about whether or not she was telling the truth at this point, “How large is the creature?”

Her ego now going full force, Trixie sat up and took as much of a refined position as she could. Her horn flickered as she cast a spell to conjure a flat structure a few feet long and wide while also being very thin. This done, images of the Ursa Minor and Major found their way onto it, making the summoned structure act like a television.

“Take any common bear, multiply its size by a hundred, and you have an Ursa Minor. Triple that and you have an Ursa Major!”

Trixie began to play the scene of her killing the beasts, which both helped confirm her story while also making Laufey a bit wary about her.

“And you, a small horse, defeated both of these creatures by yourself?” he questioned. Perhaps he could conquer and use more of these beings if they were so powerful.

Trixie huffed, “Size isn’t everything,” she quickly took an even more indignant pose as she continued on, “And I’m above average height for a pony, thank you very much!”

Looking over the footage being played before him, Laufey found himself slightly impressed. He had no way of knowing if these were fabricated or not, but the way Loki was not contradicting her made him feel as if it had some level of truth.

Laufey turned to Loki as they all resumed searching throughout the darkened corridors, “Runt, it seems your illegitimate child is a more capable combatant than you,” he snorted amusedly as he had another thought, “And is not a runt of her species, like yourself.”

Loki was quick to correct him, “We share no blood, and—”

Trixie cut him off while jabbing a hoof towards a side corridor that had a quick flash go down it, “Quiet, Warp ahead! More important matter to handle!”

While running off towards the brief sighting of light, Trixie had the unfortunate luck of being first. Her charge forward brought her directly into contact with a cobweb, and a shrill yell emitted from her lips as she shivered at stopped her dash.

Laufey shook his head disappointedly, “So easily frightened. And to think you boast of your talents. I doubt you are a tenth of the threat you sell yourself as, even if you do have some arcane talent.”

Feeling a bit humiliated, Trixie gritted her teeth and charged up power in her horn as she turned towards Laufey, “Well, if you need a demonstration…”

Loki could see her new charge directly at Laufey as if it was in slow motion. He wanted to stop it, but was unable to step in the way in time to prevent his allies from tearing one another apart.

Seeing the full frontal attack made Laufey scoff, for he had already prepared a hidden ice blade should he need to fight. He took a swing forward at her just as she entered his reach, “Pathetic—”

The swing of his blade struck through nothing but an illusion, seven more of which split out of it of the same size that quickly surrounded the Frost Giant.

Laufey was unable to tell which one was the real Trixie, and each lunged forward. He felt his legs be taken out from underneath him, while each of the illusions rushed forth with their horn honed in on his abdomen. Just as he managed to comment on the sudden change of events, one horn pierced his abdomen, “What the—”

From behind him the real Trixie growled at Laufey as she dug her horn further into his back, magic glowing off it immensely.

Trixie growled softly as she began to threaten the much larger being. She was not in the mood to deal with threatening monsters again, having had her fair share of those for a lifetime, “I am no murderer, but I have heard you are. One thought and I could kill you, giant. I still have all my powers after all, unlike your son with his floundering abilities.”

On his knees and defeated by a being less than half his size, Laufey growled before spitting out a furious, “Very well.”

Trixie removed her horn before teleporting to be beside Loki, who she quickly leaned on as if she was seeking comfort. Loki granted it to her by not pushing her away and even bringing a hand down to her mane.

Luna had chosen her apprentice well. Basic trickery could go a long way in a fight, so long as talents were used to their fullest capacity.

The blood that was profusely spilling down Laufey’s body did not seem to bother him, and instead he seemed amused by it all. He turned to Loki with this amusement evident on his otherwise cold face, “To think that I would respect a horse more than my own son.”

Loki was quite sure he did not regret slaying Laufey.

With Trixie getting back to being focused on the hunt and Laufey not being the most verbose person, Loki found himself in an uneasy quiet once more. He would normally want to form a plan rather than just keep running on into the unknown, but he had no knowledge of this building and he could not trust Laufey to do anything like split up. He would just take the way out for himself.

Fortunately for Loki, they found themselves into a room where the wisp darted into. The room was not particularly large, but Loki was pleased to see that it had no way out. So long as this being did not activate its teleportation powers, they had it contained.

Laufey froze the room’s one exit shut, and each of the three prepared to approach the floating spark that remained still across from them.

Trixie turned to face Loki with a smile, Luna’s tales of Loki’s talking finesse coming to mind, “You’re up, silver tongue.”

Loki pushed Trixie forward, “You know more about it. I do not wish to misstep and cause it to flee.”

Not happy about being shoved, Trixie rolled her eyes and moved to approach their prize, “Fine, I’ll handle it. I just hope that nickname for you the Princess mentioned once came from your speaking abilities…”

She cleared her throat and spoke to it in as much of a diplomatic voice as she could muster, “Spark known as Warp, heed our request. We—”

A disembodied voice rang through the room, though it was easy to assume that its origin was the floating orb, “Not Sky…who you?”

The broken response made Trixie uneasy, as she was beginning to realize that the creature might not be in the most fit of minds, “Uhhhh…”

Laufey groaned as he watched the equine already bungle things, “Why are you calling it that odd name?”

Trixie did not appreciate the commentary and quickly grew exasperated, “That’s what Hela told me it was! The cold witch could not stop going on and on about it, and to be honest it became irritating that she was explaining to me a way out of this mess while I was unable to do anything about it.”

What she said caught Loki’s attention more than their current situation, “Who is this ‘Hela’?”

Trixie turned away from the floating spark and to Loki with a frown, “Tall, ivory skin like yours, black mane, likes black cloaks, sadistic, shapeshifts to different ages…” she paused before shrugging, “She says you have met and are quite familiar.”

Hela...things began to click in Loki’s mind. He wasn’t sure he wanted them to do so, but they were.

Loki tried to repress the thoughts so that he could focus on the important matter at hand, “We have, only I have known her by the name Lady Death. Go on.”

“Go bots…” the disembodied voice piped up again, its voice weakly trailing off.

“He said go on,” Trixie smugly corrected, “Anyways, she said that this being can teleport and has cross dimensional capabilities now thanks to some meddling a god of chaos like Discord did. He can transport between worlds, like Discord, and is our ticket home.”

Laufey nodded to that, but he wanted more, “And how do we make him take us back to our worlds?”

Trixie shrugged as she tried to remember what she could from her dreams, “He apparently hates bugs with a fiery passion. Tell him that the bugs are at a certain place, and that’s where he’ll go even if he can’t logically do anything!”

This information allowed Loki to take the initiative now, no longer willing to let Trixie fail at speaking to their ticket out of this world, “Wandering spirit not known as Sky, there is an infestation of insects on my realm. I require your aid to seek out and eliminate them, as do my companions.”

The response was less than coherent, “Bug—shell—BOMB—shot—kick...”

Trixie frowned, “Is that a yes?”

Neither Loki or Laufey could give their opinions on the matter in time before the floating electrical ball began to glow a light purple. The purple quickly expanded to the area around the ball as well, and soon it created an aura throughout about half the room in a radius around the odd creature.

Trixie’s eyes lit up at the sight of this happening, which in turn made the others feel more confident about the otherwise alarming event, “There it is! In just a few minutes we’ll be free of this forsaken world!”

As the light slowly grew brighter and brighter Loki felt the air in the room chill immensely. He did not need to turn to know that there was now another being in the room, one whom was not invited but who would do as she pleased anyways.

“You again.”

Loki’s voice was nearly a growl as much as he tried to tone it down. He had just pieced together something that made him feel as if bile was coming up his throat.

No-one seemed to want to speak given the tense look on Loki, but Lady Death approached him from behind with her hood masking her face once again. She stopped just outside the aura, which itself ended right after Loki and Laufey. Laufey gave the two some space, more intent on seeing how this would play out than actually participating.

Loki continued to speak as his thoughts from before began to flood to his mouth, “You travel through time. Bridge worlds together. Have a vendetta against me, as well as the deadweight.”

She nodded to him, though the mute woman made no noise. This only fed Loki’s anger more, and he continued on with his growing description of the woman.

“You can speak in dreams. You can enter dreams, something almost wholly unique to a certain being I know.”

With that, Lady Death reached back and pulled her hood down. Her pearly white skin glowed in the light of the room, though the purple lights from both Trixie and the spark made her appear a light purple herself. This was except for the dark green half mask that covered her face still, its pointed edges giving it a fearsome appearance to match her twisted appearance.

Loki narrowed his eyes to observe her further, finding himself surprised that he did not notice certain things earlier as he looked over her face and neck, “Your magic is dark in color, much like Luna’s in her Nightmare form. It also has a flair of green, much like my own aura.”

“Here you bring together lost souls with questionable moralities and ideals. A world of greyness that is both figurative and literal,” Loki paused again to clear his throat, “I do not know why you do not talk, but I think I know who and what you are now.”

As if to humor him further, Lady Death took a hand to her mask to remove the mask that concealed her important features. She took her time removing it, but when she did it took another moment for both Loki and Trixie to respond at all.

For Trixie it was simply a gasp of shock at seeing a face identical to the one Luna wore in her humanoid form, for Loki it was the shock of having his suspicions confirmed.

“I do not know if you are from my reality originally, but given that you seem to enjoy my torment more than Ikol’s, I can assume as much,” Loki paused again before saying an important name for the first time, “Hela.”

Laufey’s throat rumbled as he shot a death glare at Loki, “Your posturing is quite irritating. The both of you.”

“She despises you as much as me. Why do you think she has been stringing you along all this time?” Loki looked between Hela and Laufey, “Say hello to your possible granddaughter. She is not the kind of person you should be rude to.”

That shut Laufey up quickly.

Loki used the silence to continue his own rant, “Thanos is obsessed with death, and you embody it. The reason he brought me here was that you asked him to using the same method you spoke to Trixie, her dreams. You can talk through them to whomever you please, you just enjoy messing with others more.”

His fists clenched, “It begs the question as to why you did not just kill me yourself, since I assume you can leave this realm on a whim,” Loki brought one hand up to his neck, unfurling it so that he could run it over his neck, “Or why you did not just have him snap my neck instead of dragging me here.”

Trixie cleared her throat to draw attention to herself, “I wasn’t going to mention it, but unlike me…” she averted her eyes as Loki looked to her, “Well, you kinda already are dead.”

Loki’s heart sank figuratively upon hearing that, but he decided to speak aloud his thoughts on it anyways, “That would explain the lack of need for food, and why my wounds are not healing…” he turned back to Hela, whose Luna-esque face remained expressionless and ever impassive, “But I am alive enough to do some things. Undead, maybe. I should research the topic more upon returning to Asgard.”

“But, then again, while I assume you could alter my state, I do believe you want me this way. What possible purpose could this alteration have? Keep me from regaining my magic abilities through rest?”

The woman in black lifted a finger to point at Loki. Out of it shot forth a faded green beam that brought warmth and a feeling of strength to where it touched Loki, revealing another piece of his puzzle.

Loki frowned at her with pursed lips, “You were the one powering me. My my, you are quite the fickle woman. Playing both sides of all my conflicts and letting everyone else involved suffer,” Loki laughed a little as he thought more about the situation he found himself in, “This world makes little logical sense because you are the one in complete control of it, and you are a disturbed being whose sadomasochism is astounding.”

“What was that about not being rude?” Laufey called back.

Before Loki could tell his father to be quiet, Trixie interjected, “Sorry to interrupt you, but I think we’re about to go!”

Indeed, the purple glow around them was almost blinding as it continued to build. Loki brought a hand up to his shoulder where he made sure Ikol still stood, and was pleased to find that his alternate self was as interested in leaving as he was.

Loki could feel his body begin to shift, a feeling that usually was instant when he teleported rather than dragged out. He had no idea if this would kill him, but he had a feeling that it would not matter much given who his future daughter apparently was.

Beside him Trixie was just ecstatic about being able to leave, “Once we get back nothing’s going to stop me from proving myself to be the most powerful Unicorn once I return! Nopony is going to stop me—”

The wall beside them erupted as a powerful burst of magic burst through it. While Loki, Trixie, and Laufey all were surprised and turned to face whatever just busted down the entire wall, Hela only smiled at them before disappearing in a black and green mist.

Loki recognized the body that quickly dashed through the opening, what with its sickly skin and long elf ears. The giant crystal lodged through their chest remained from when Loki first saw the dying, starved elf.

“That being—”

It passed straight through the spark and grabbed Trixie by the face, its palm clenching on her muzzle as the half naked elf screamed madly, “Magic! Power!”

“Damnit, no!”

Loki moved to react to the sudden assault, but a surge of magic knocked him across the room and into the ice Laufey had set up before. As his back slammed against the frozen water, Loki managed to catch sight of Trixie’s own energy surging from her body and into the gripping palm of the assailant.

“Power...overwhelming!” the crazed, pale elf cackled. Loki wished that Illidan was there to prevent this, as he would have seen this coming with his special sight. Loki cursed the taller elf for not being there, but in the split moment it took him to do so the purple in the room faded and everything faded into darkness.

The others were gone, and Loki found himself alone once again.